While strolling along Lytham’s sea front I saw Stagecoach service 68 on its way from Preston to Blackpool.
What a contrast to my childhood when Ribble buses terminated at Lytham and were prevented from using this coastal route to protect the local authority operators of Lytham St Annes and Blackpool.
How sad that territorial parochialism denied direct services to Blackpool for those who lived between Preston and Lytham.
Area Agreements
When I researched my book on Area Agreements I found lots of similar arrangements, including one that banned Midland Red’s buses from picking up and setting down passengers within a quarter-of-a-mile of a Leicester Corporation tram terminus.
I was brought up in an industry where territorial jealousies were endemic.
When working at SELNEC Leigh and we wanted to change a service that was operated by a number of garages, and it was almost impossible to get someone to give up a bus working and to transfer it to Leigh even though it made sound economic sense.
“We’ve always had a bus on this route” was the declaration of ownership from the trade union, and I suspect that privately it was the view of local management.
When I became Greater Manchester PTE’s District Manager in Oldham I went on a tour of my new area and I was taken to Buckstones near Oldham. A new road had been built providing a link between two separate and previously unconnected bus termini.
Service 417 was operated by Oldham District from Royton, while service 435 was operated by Rochdale District and came in from Rochdale.
Also under consideration was a new bus turning circle at a mid-point on the new road and, because of very difficult terrain, it was a somewhat costly project.
The plan was to extend the 417 from one end of the road and the 435 from the other end and for both to use the new bus turning circle.
I saw immediately that the turning circle wasn’t necessary as the 417 and 435 could either be linked operationally or turned into a through service as both ran every 30 minutes.
There was another benefit. Oldham crews working the 417 had to travel three miles to take over a duty and so creating a through service and handing it over to Rochdale made perfect sense.
Parochial values
What a pity that parochial values had the potential to override economic sense. But then again, the 435 was Rochdale’s and the 417 was Oldham’s.
Inter-company disputes were not uncommon.
In 1955 the corporations of St Helens and Liverpool, and Ribble Motor Services were at loggerheads as to who had the rights to run a service to the Southdene area near St Helens.
After battling it out before the Traffic Commissioner, all three were granted separate road service licences, even though only one bus was needed to run the service. A Pyrrhic victory, perhaps?
